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Craft malls is a fairly new idea for selling and marketing your craft products. As the name suggests the idea behind it is the same as for a general shopping mall. It is all about setting your craft under a professional and organised platform. You will need to take up space on rent or lease in craft malls and pay for setting up of your space. This will include decoration and furnishing. The advantages of selling in craft malls is that not only does your craft gets sold in a professional environment that provides all amenities that are modern buyer requires such as air-conditioning, restrooms, refreshments etc but you also get to have the potential of setting nationwide.

Major craft malls operate as a chain all across the nation or at least in cities that have the potential of being a major market. While some malls require your physical presence most of the professional ones will send your product for you. Once you have rented out your space and done it up in the fashion that you wish all you need to do is keep supplying them with your products as required.

If you are thinking of selling in craft mall then you will need to verify the credibility of the mall itself. Asking the mall owners on a list of the crafters that are renting out with them is a good idea. You can gain to their idea of the credibility of the malls by judging the success of the people who are already doing business with them. Ideally you should look for malls that three to five years in business. This would prove there is stability and success in selling other people’s crafts.
While getting into signing up a lease with a craft mall for the first time it is a good idea to sign up for the minimum amount of time possible. This will help you gauge the business potential with the minimum lock in of investment.

Craft Malls:

Crafters Market Place and Gifts1403 West Glen Ave.
Peoria, IL 61614
309/692-7238
Call for an information package

Apple Tree Mall
1830 W. Hwy 76
POB 1336
Branson, MO 65616
Call for an information package

A Few Online Craft Malls:

Internet craft malls

This is the same concept has the regular craft malls only that it is a marketplace that is on the Internet. The obvious advantage of having a store on the Internet is that you have the potential of reaching millions of buyers not just all over the country about all over the world. The rules about finding the right craft malls for a product the same as they are with the regular craft malls. You need to contact the buyer of the malls and check the credibility of the store. A moral owner with experience in the crafting business is always preferred.
It gets a little harder to verify the number of people who are actually visiting a particular online store. In order to get a substantial amount of buyers to any online stores requires marketing and advertising. Ask the owner of the store questions pertaining to the marketing tactics used by them and the number of hits that their website receives. Marketing online for online products requires the degree of expertise and professional knowledge. Enquire about the professionals engaged in achieving this or that particular mall.

It is common not to meet the owners of online craft malls personally. You may need to send in your craft for reviewing by the mall before they decide to put it up for you in their online store. This is a normal process.

A few online craft malls:

The Crafters Market Place
http://www.crafters.ca/
Coomers Craft Mall Online
http://www.procrafter.com:80/

Quilted Bear
http://www.quilted bear.com/

A World of Crafts
http://www.craft.com/menu.html

The Handmade in America Show
Free space to crafters
http://www.craft-fair.com/

While the most obvious method of selling your hand made crafts is selling them as a part of your own business, it is often profitable to market them to other sellers and businesses. Gift shops spring to mind. As a business unit you will probably start with a single outlet for your crafts but if you choose to supply two other traders you can have multiple outlets for your art. For this you will have two fine and target the right kind of outlets that will be able to market your product effectively. There are several journals and craft reports that are published that list gift shops and galleries that major traders for handicrafts items.

You can also look around in and around your area to find such shops and galleries. Finding outlets for selling your crafts is the first step. Once you have managed to compile a list you need to contact them in her professional manner and inform them about your company and your crafts. It is the good idea to design a professional cover letter that can act as an informative document regarding your company, the product and the terms of business. In case you have a brochure your company means that as well.
Most businesses that will want to source products from you will want to work on a wholesale basis with the credit applying every 30 days. This means that they will want to order the craft in a relatively large quantity and be you for it on a 30 days based cycle. You can set a minimum orde for wholesale, since you will be selling at reduced prices. This is a normal practice when selling your products wholesale.
Be sure to follow up your communication after a week or so by making a call. The shop owner may or may not be interested. If he is not enquire if there is a chance for an opening in the near future. Be friendly and professional. Most of the craft business owners look forward to new and fresh crafts and new craftsmen. If someone does not have an opening at that point of time does not mean that they will not be another in the near future. Establishing contact and making a pleasant impression is key to future gains.
Do not be hesitant to call as calling craft businesses is very much a part of this industry and mostly all craft business owners expect to get calls. In fact they are propitiated of new craftsmen getting in touch because it is by the infusion of new and fresh crafts that their business stays profitable.
Sometimes a business owners may not have the time to respond to mail in spite of being interested in ordering from you. Making a phone call takes care of this problem.

A few craft shops:

The Francisco Enterprise
562 143rd St.
Caledonia, MI 49316
616/877-4185

The Front Room Publishers
P.O. Box 1541
Clifton, NJ 07015

Lifestyle Crafts
2164 Riverside Dr.
Columbus, OH 43221
614/486-7119

If you are a crafter and interested in having a craft business of your own then you surely must consider marketing and selling your crafts through a craft fair, regardless of whether you are a beginner or not. Selling through craft fairs is a very old and yet are very popular tradition. But the truth is that it does involve quite a bit of travelling. So while it can be fun and adventurous it is not for someone who is pretty much settled in one place. There are several options available to you if you want to participate in craft fairs. It is up to you to decide the aggression with which you want to participate. There are certain fairs that keep travelling all the time while there are some that happen at major seasons and in major cities every year. If you do not wish to travel a lot you may wish to participate in the few select craft fairs to showcase your products. Participating in craft fairs happening in your own area will save you cost such as travel expenses and shipping.
If you are planning to have a booth for yourself to sell you will need to have a credit card merchant status so you can accept cards for purchases. This helps the matter what form of business you are running, to boost sales.

You must also be clear about the major concept of participating in a craft fair. Do not expect to make a great deal of money in your first few participations. Participating in the craft fairs in and around your area will help you develop a better network for a long-term business growth. You might also make important business ties and meet with key participants in this industry. The crafting industry in the United States of America has shown an amazing growth over the past few years. It has grown by almost 50% and as an annual turn over of more than $1 billion.

You will also gain insight and first-hand experience as to what crafts hotselling and what your competition is doing. The great thing about the crafting industry is that it is a fairly friendly and amicable community. People are ready to share their knowledge and experience. A craft fair can be one great opportunity for you to learn from other fellow crafters.

Here is a place to find craft shows:

Sunshine Artists Magazine
1700 sunset drive
Longwood, Florida 32750
West Art
P.O. Box 6868
Auburn, CA 95604

The Crafts Fair Guide
P.O. Box 5508
Mill Valley, CA 94942
This guide is put out four times a year, in time for you to apply to the shows. The crafters who attended the show previously critique every show in it.

Show Organizers:

Harvest Festivals
1-800/321-1213
Call for vendor information.

Steve Powers
619/731-9371
Call for vendor information.